Germany at Olympic qualification

[Rob]

Where is German talent at compared to 10 years or 20 years ago?
From an outsiders perspective it seems that German hockey has always remained at the same level.

 

[Maverick41]

Where is German talent at compared to 10 years or 20 years ago?
From an outsiders perspective it seems that German hockey has always remained at the same level.

I'm probably not qualified to answer the question, since I only started to follow hockey more closely about 5-6 years ago.
But I tend to agree that nothing, or very little has changed.
Draisaitl is definitely an aberration and should not be misconstrued as a sudden emergence of Germany as a hockey nation.

I do think that some things have improved lately, and more teams put a little more effort into the development of youth players. That might slightly improve the depth of solid players in Germany, but in no way, shape or form will it take us to the next level.

I think Denmark and Norway will soon leave us behind just as Switzerland did.

 

[Sanderson]

I think Denmark and Norway will soon leave us behind just as Switzerland did.

I don't really see that happening. It has been said before, only for Germany to have good tournaments again while the rest had a bad stretch. Even Switzerland hadn't looked all that good not too long ago. Sure, they had the odd surprising result and fared better against the big nations at the Olympics, but apart from last year their World Championship results weren't all that stellar, making the quarterfinals only once in the four years prior.

I see Switzerland slightly ahead of everything that follows. On average they are the closest team to the top, but they will be prone to have bad tournaments again as well. Behind them there are at least six or seven teams who are about on one level, with the usual ups and downs. All of them can make the quarters or get relegated, depending on their form, which varies a lot.


As for the question, Germany still doesn't seem to develop high-end prospects, but the overall level has improved quite a bit. You didn't see a whole lot of Germans among the DEL topscorers just ten years ago. There were usually about two or three Germans in the top 25, and that includes the nationalised players that weren't developed here. In the past three years it has been around 10. Same is true for goalies, there used to be two or three guys who were (at least) part-time starters, now most of the teams have a German no 1.

On average, the players have become much better skaters and have quite a bit more offensive skill. There's still a lack of offense when playing against good teams though, no real go-to guy. The defense is probably the biggest problem. There is a pretty huge gap between the NHL-defenders and the rest. You have a handful of guys, like Braun or Hördler, who are good enough at international level, but it drops off significantly again afterwards. Germany can field about eight or nine good defensemen, anyone beyond that shouldn't play more than a very minor role at a World Championship, as they aren't thinking quick enough and lack any offensive skill. The problem is that most of the time only about half of the good players are available, which makes the defense rather questionable.

 

[KEC]

germany

Big Hockey Fan since 1985 played myself from 5 years old til the age of 17.
I saw many ups and downs in Germany's hockey since then. I still think the era of the late 80s to Mid 90s was the best we had in a while. The Team in 1993 Home WC in Dortmund and 1992 Olympics in Albertville came close to a Medal and not just of luck.
The Sport Side of German Hockey was on a good way, but on the other hand German Hockey could have been described as a financial Disaster due to the fact our local Heroes could get payed like NHL players and had brought the Clubs to the Edge of Bankruptcy.
If someone's not believing, there was just recently an interview with Udo Kiessling in which he'd been asked why he'd just played one Game for Minnesota and not signed the One way Contract Offer to stay with the North Stars, Man I can tell you. Even former NJ Devil Uli Hiemer was more than happy to return to Düsseldorf after some seasons in North America in which he'd performed pretty good.
And than came Bosman and turned the Tide to the other side.
As the Floodgates opened up and low budget Foreigners came to the DEL in bunches from all over the World, we'd lost a whole Generation of young players, unable to get a spot in a DEL Team. This was the big Chance for the Clubs to reduce costs and change the Bundesliga to a North American style kind of League. Now known as DEL - don't get me wrong here guys there'd something to be done ASAP at this time of Bundesliga History, and now after some years myself became a DEL fan. It's like the Russians say "who don't misses the Soviet Union has no heart but those who want it back are fools" so yeah I loved the Bundesliga but DEL may be the best solution in long term direction.
While our neighbor rival Switzerland stuck to I think 2 import players per Team coz they weren't a member of the EU and had the financial power to attract top class Players like Chomutov, Bykov and Eldebrink for instance, all we've got was Craighead and other Guys you've even never heard about before.
And the Result was the bitter Relegation to B Division in Vienna 2005, ten Years after we'd the chance to go for a Medal at the IIHF WC 1995 in which a win over Switzerland was the most common event. Now the Suisse are a big step ahead and have enough Quality to go for a Medal (not at the Olympics with full force NHL, KHL players, but at a regular IIHF WC)
We're still recovering from the Era and our Youth Program's improved, but so have all programs of European Nations of Hockey and its rather a game of catch up at the moment. Guys I possibly could Textwall for hours but don't wanna be annoying in my very first post

 

[vorky]

MHL is there. Call me crazy, but I can imagine german MHL team, especially if there are austrian and czech. We will see. Of course, MHL is not solution for german hockey program.

I was right here.
http://www.mdr.de/sport/sport-im-osten/eishockey-exklusiv100.html

 

[Jussi]

From my understanding, they want to play in the MHL, they've yet to be given the green light for it by the German federation.

 

[Rekin]

The DEB has already agreed to it, it's not official yet but there's few doubt about that it will soon be.

 

[Namejs]

I saw many ups and downs in Germany's hockey since then. I still think the era of the late 80s to Mid 90s was the best we had in a while. The Team in 1993 Home WC in Dortmund and 1992 Olympics in Albertville came close to a Medal and not just of luck.

With all due respect, the relative success in late 80s/early 90s had a lot to do with how weak the opposition was in international hockey.

You had to beat Italy and... Poland to advance to the play-off stage in 1992 OG. The North American teams had pretty terrible line-ups, there was no Slovakia, no Latvia or Belarus. Norway or Denmark weren't very good back then either.

I remember Latvia beating Germany 5:0 and 8:0 in the 90s in World Champs. You have improved a lot since then.

Just look at how many NHL draftees you had in the 80s (13), 90s (19) and 00s (30!).

It's just that new hockey nations have appeared and a bunch of others are able to field solid teams filled with very good talent in their ranks when compared to what we saw 20 years ago.

 

[Eisdork]

Big Hockey Fan since 1985 played myself from 5 years old til the age of 17.
I saw many ups and downs in Germany's hockey since then. I still think the era of the late 80s to Mid 90s was the best we had in a while. The Team in 1993 Home WC in Dortmund and 1992 Olympics in Albertville came close to a Medal and not just of luck.

Do you know the book "Eishockey in Deutschland" by Frank Bröker? As far as I know it's the only book chronicling the entire history of hockey in Germany. I think it's a must read for all German hockey fans, and I'm sure you'll like it.